100 Shades of Summer
by MissBubbles
Summary: John and Bobby. Pyro and Iceman. The things you don't see, the things you do, and everything that lies beneath.
1. Sneer

Author's notes: Part of my 100 promts project. I can't promise I'll ever get all 100 of these written but I've decided to bite the bullet and start uploading them anyway. Relationships are intended to be ambiguous - so you can interpret them whatever way you please.

_Characters: _Rogue; John; Bobby  
_Time frame:_ X-Men (first movie)

**035. Sneer**

John never smiles.

Rogue notices this after only a few days of hanging around in Bobby's shadow. He sneers a lot; and smirks and scoffs and sniggers. But he doesn't smile. Not really.

After a couple of weeks, it crosses Rogue's mind that perhaps he only smiles when she isn't around, but she thinks this unlikely and shakes the thought off like cold water. She can hardly consider herself to be that significant. John certainly wouldn't like her to think that she mattered; especially not to him.

The day Logan leaves, Rogue abandons the foosball table for five minutes and leaves Bobby to the mercy of John and a guy whose name she can't remember. She doubts John can remember it either. When she returns, Bobby has won and John is smiling; smiling because Bobby always beats him; smiling because no one will believe he lost anyway. Then he turns and sees Rogue watching them and his smile falters, but doesn't quite fall.

'Looks like he doesn't need you after all.'

It's almost a jest, but not quite. Bobby punches him in the arm as he passes, leaving John in his shadow.

'Don't be an asshole.'

That's not a jest and Rogue sees the smile turn into a sneer. A sneer that isn't quite as sincere as it sounds.

'Whatever.'

Bobby's too busy looking at Rogue to notice; John's eyes darken in his shadow.

That's when Rogue realises why John never smiles.


	2. Leave

**034. Leave**

'That's it.'

John snaps his lighter shut and stomps to the front of the X-Jet, leaning between Bobby and Rogue to lower the ramp and turning his back on them as they jump to their feet. He snatches up a jacket that wasn't his before today and thinks – for just a moment – that this might work.

It's just a moment.

'Whoa, where do you think you're goin'?'

Hearing Bobby drop a 'g' bothers John; it makes him sound pissed-off and not-quite caring. Something changes between them in that instant, but he doesn't notice it immediately. Instead he just lets Bobby's affronted voice irritate him as much as possible, because if he fans the flames this might hurt less.

'I'm sick of this "kid's table" shit. I'm going in there.'

The air outside is cold, billowing up the ramp and biting into John's hot flesh. It's almost as cold as the look Bobby is giving him from across the jet; the same look he's been giving John ever since his parent's magnolias went up in flames.

'John, they told us ta stay in here.'

And there's Rogue, offering him an excuse that doesn't quite cut it. He falters anyway, but he knows, deep down, it's not enough to make him stay.

It's Rogue, not Bobby.

So he swallows the fear and the pain and the disappointment that's trying to choke him and turns to look at her straight, which he's hardly done since they met and overlooks Bobby, because Bobby keeps overlooking him.

'You always do as you're told?'

She considers it; tilts her head to the side and regards him with an interest she's never shown anyone except Logan before now. John barely notices. He glances at Bobby and the Iceman shifts but says nothing, even though he must know that the words are meant for him. It's a dare, but Bobby's far too sensible to rise to it.

John doesn't want to leave. He hates the snow and the cold, but he hates that no one tries to stop him even more. And somewhere, deep down it his gut, there's a bad guy that knows no one wants him here anymore.

Sometimes the bad guy wins.


	3. Stash

Author's note: These snippets are all written pretty hastily and though this one's been hanging around for a while, it hasn't been edited a great deal. Constructive critisism on any of the pieces would be greatly appreciated, as I'm continuously looking for ways to improve my writing. Thanks and I hope you enjoy this one!

**090. Stash**

Bobby goes cold when he finds John's stash of old school notes and it's nothing to do with the ice at his fingertips.

John had always hated school. He hated the lessons and the rules and the hierarchy that came with it and he's scribbled several sarcastic comments in the margins telling whoever was unfortunate enough to be marking his work exactly that. John was the kind of person who was smart without even trying. He could blag his way through a test without having listened to a word of the lesson before it and still come out with a mark that matched Bobby's, if Bobby was having a good day.

Until now, though, Bobby had never known what it was John had been doing in all those lessons, other than playing at pyrotechnics behind his back. But in the margins of his work, in small, neat handwriting that Bobby can't even recognize as John's, are snippets of poems and songs and prose that were good enough for Bobby to consider that perhaps they were quotes, rather than John's own work.

But then he remembers that John had never been one to copy others.

He leafs through old exercise books and loose sheets of paper until it's dark outside and Rogue comes to find him, asking if he's going to eat anything tonight. He's slow to look up at her and when he finally tears his gaze away from a lyric that seems neither musical nor poetic, he feels a prickling in his chest he's never experienced before.

'Bobby?'

He's been staring blankly at Rogue for longer than he should have and she shifts nervously under his gaze. He smiles in a way that isn't quite forced and shoves his doubt aside, along with the papers he's holding.

'I'll meet you downstairs in a second; I just gotta pack this stuff up.'

Rogue smiles that smile that doesn't quite reach her eyes and leaves him alone again.

Slowly, carefully, Bobby files John's words away into boxes. He had intended to throw the lot out, but for a reason he doesn't try to understand he instead carries the boxes to his new room and stashes them underneath the single bed, leaving his doubt tucked neatly away inside them. He won't look at them again and quite soon he forgets they're there at all.

Sometimes, when he's trying to fall asleep, he thinks of John and isn't sure why.


	4. Sushi

**083. Sushi**

'Sushi?'

Bobby nods, oblivious to the note of disgust in John's voice.

'Yeah, there's this new restaurant that's just opened in town. Wanna try it?'

John props himself up with his elbows, letting the magazine he hadn't really been reading slide to the floor. He fixes Bobby with a disbelieving smirk.

'Do _I_ wanna try sushi?'

Bobby still hasn't picked up on the sarcasm John is dripping with, nor the utter stupidity of his request. His innocent smile is enough to make John consider dining on raw seafood for an evening, just so that he could boast when they had to buy chips on the way home.

…That and the fact that he hadn't humoured Bobby in a long while.

'Come on, it'll be different. Rogue says it's great.'

The smirk doesn't fall from John's face but it stiffens at the edges and becomes more of a sneer. The thought of humouring Bobby suddenly turns sour. He slouches back on the bed and turns his cold gaze to the ceiling.

'Nah, sounds shit.'

Bobby shrugs, too used to the cold to notice the chill that has iced over the conversation.

'Fair enough.'

Bobby always gives up too easily.


End file.
